Issue link: http://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/650208
16 Not everybody loved the loyal bootlegger, though, and Charles Curtis, above all, pursued an end to the Green Hat era. Now, as Herbert Hoover's vice president, the former leader of the Senate remained attentive to the institution and used his increased power to work hand-in-hand with the Treasury Depart- ment's Bureau of Prohibition. In 1929, shortly aer Assistant U.S. Attorney General Mabel Walker Willebrandt publicly declared, "Bootleggers infest the halls and corridors of Congress," Curtis, Secretary of the Senate Edwin P. ayer, and the Treasury Department's Prohibition Commissioner James M. Doran signed off on a plan placing a young "dry spy" in Cassiday's prime terri- tory: the Senate Stationery Room. 32 e Prohibition agent in question, Roger Butts, presented his side of the story in his own Washington Post series, published in November, 1930. e previous year, as a twenty-year old, Butts le a clerical position to join the Prohibition Bureau, earning $180 a month to work undercover. Briefed on his assignment, the "dry spy" got "quite a thrill" to hear that he would be working for the vice president of the United States. 33 In December, 1929, Butts met with the Secretary of the Senate and John C. Crocket, the chief clerk of the Senate, who escorted him to the Stationery Room and introduced him as a temporary worker, hired to assist with the Christmas rush. 34 For the first two weeks, Butts worked a regular schedule, waiting on senators and their secretaries as he filled orders for stationery, pencils, pens, paper, and other supplies. He also kept an eye on the windows. Situated at the northeast corner of the SOB, the room had a view of First Street, where Cassiday parked his car on a daily basis. 35 Once the "boys in the stationery room" warmed up to him, Butts felt comfortable broaching the subject of the Man in the Green Hat, but was unable to secure a liquor delivery. He believed that Cassiday was "shunning" him due to his youth and because the bootlegger had "no confidence" that Butts wanted the alcohol for his own consumption. e dry spy hatched a plan: he bought two pints from a rival salesman, drank enough to get the liquor on his breath, and arrived to work late, "not staggering, but just a little unsteady." In Butts' words, "I sat at my desk and started sing- ing and making all kinds of noises to give the impression that I was feeling good." Word of the incident got back to Cassiday, but he was too "shrewd" to add Butts to his customer list. 36 Finally, in February, 1930, the dry spy had another Senate employee, who was aware of Butts's true assignment, arrange a liquor drop-off outside of the SOB. is unnamed individual called Cassiday from the Stationery Room and ordered six fihs Assistant Attorney General Mabel W. Willebrandt, who declared that "Bootleggers infest the halls and corridors of Congress," in her 1929 New York Times article, "THE INSIDE OF PROHIBITION: CHAPTER 11--ARE CONGRESSMEN ABOVE THE LAW?" LIBRARY OF CONGRESS, PRINTS & PHOTOGRAPHS DIVISION, PHOTOGRAPH BY HARRIS & EWING

